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Outside the Natural World
Courtney Allen

The wind sounded like water; it rushed through trees, the rustling leaves sounding like waves, like an ocean.

I kept reminding myself that the surrounding rocks were created millions of years ago – that the colors of the sediment convey time.

I took a nap in my car. Saw a rainbow almost form a complete circle. Noticed a mosquito bite on the thick of my palm.

I drove out to the vista point. It was cold and overcast. I took a picture of a man in a red jacket against the gray blue fog.

One of the largest freshwater lakes in the country lay behind him. We couldn’t see it, but we sat there anyway, waiting for a great unveiling.

Courtney Allen is an American photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. She received a BS in Photojournalism from Boston University in 2010 and recently completed the long term program, The Photobook: From Start to Finish, developed by the Penumbra Foundation and Image Threads Collective. She was also a participant at the 2022 Chico Portfolio Review. Her work centers on our relationship with the natural world – our hopeful expectations meeting the reality of our contributions.